Krebs connected with the operator of TwBooter (booter.tw) who told the reporter that the accounts used to launch said attacks were taken over by a hacker who goes by Phobia. (The TwBooter operator wouldn't explain how he knew, however.) Other leads Krebs uncovered pointed to a group of gamers and hackers called "Team Hype," upset by his reporting on the identity theft clearinghouse site ssndb.ru—because they, apparently, had been using information from the site to take over the Xbox Live gamertags of Microsoft employees before selling them to other players. One of the members of that group was known as Phobia.

According to Krebs' source, Phobia had been bragging to others that he was responsible for both the DOS attack on Krebs' site and the call that brought armed police to his house. But Phobia, who had until recently used the Twitter account @PhobiaTheGod, had his personal details exposed as well. He had been "doxed" on the site Skidpaste.org. So Krebs decided to use that information to give Phobia a call.

He reached 20-year old Ryan Stevenson at his home in Milford, Connecticut. And it was during that conversation that he confirmed a variety of information. Stevenson was indeed Phobia. He had also been involved in the hack of Wired reporter Mat Honan's Google, Twitter, and iCloud accounts—the hack that erased most of Honan's personal digital history in the process. For more on the truly bizarre conversation, Krebs' conversation with Stevenson's father, and the immediate aftermath, check out the full account over at Krebs on Security.